Tempest of the Stellar War

“Do lovers dare to hold hands in public?”

Hearing these ridiculous questions, Wang Zheng gave up and continued sweeping the floor, leaving the others to their idle chatter.

An outburst of laughter rang out when Wang Zheng left. A few hours later, a new group of bodyguards took over the shift. Wang Zheng took the initiative and prepared drinks for the new bodyguards.

“Good kid. I heard that you’re a soldier?”

“I’m sure that you’re a Milky Way Alliance soldier. Your actions and build fit the stereotype exactly. Man, you must have really offended many people to have been sent to such a wretched place at such a young age.”

The Lan family spent hard-earned capital to hire these mercenaries as their bodyguards. The bodyguards’ gazes were more piercing from one bodyguard to the next, and they regarded others without any trace of bias.

“I’m a military school student, currently in my second year of university. Due to my bad luck, I’ve been sent here on attachment.”

“Ah, so you’re still a student. Eh, maybe there was really a mistake, your luck must really suck. On the bright side, the Lan family holds the most power here. Furthermore, you know Missy as well, so I’m sure that will help your reputation when you return to school,” Miloxius remarked. Missy had specifically instructed him to take special care of this young one. If not, Miloxius would not have bothered at all. However, while this youngster was rather weak, his personality was not too bad.

“I also consider myself fortunate. Hopefully, I’ll find a chance to repay her.”

“Haha, actually, many years back, I myself decided to stay on after receiving a favor from Missy. For now I think it’s fine if you just earnestly take care of yourself and avoid causing any unnecessary trouble.” Miloxius laughed. While this kid understood the importance of gratitude, he did not seem to be able to help much in any way. His arms looked like they were not strong enough to even handle a chicken. The frailty of the Solar System’s people was well known, and Miloxius was from Manalasuo after all. “Also, try to cheer up. There are plenty more fish in the sea, don’t wither away just because of one woman.”

Wang Zheng did not know whether to laugh or cry and just nodded in response. In Lan Ling’s eyes, being a princess was at about the same level as being a girl from any decent family on Earth at best. It was no big deal at all.

Another person chimed in. “Count yourself lucky to be in the favor of the Lan family’s daughter. If you had been first found by the Titans instead, heh, ever wondered where the black skull hanging on the entrance to Windbreak City came from?”

“Stop spouting nonsense. The Titans aren’t as savage as you imagine. Their civilization deserves some respect. As for the skull, that was a warrior who failed at the Tucha Ceremony, a distinguished event where only brave humans recognized by the Titans can participate.”

“Cheh, I was just scaring the young one, why’d you bother to expose me?”

“What is this Tucha Ceremony?” Wang Zheng blinked in surprise. Even though he had heard of many events involving the Titans from Lan Ling, he knew nothing about the Titans’ customs.

“It’s a warrior’s ceremony that occurs three months after their coming of age ceremony. The ceremony is kind of similar to our Ironman triathlons, but the stages are far more perverse. They are pretty much impossible to pass if you are not a true expert.

“What kind of place is Windbreak City? Isn’t it a little too sadistic to hang the skull of a failed warrior in the city?”

“They are Titans after all. We can’t use human standards to judge their customs. Their civilization is different, and their way of honouring the dead is different from ours. We humans have concepts such as a peaceful burial and utmost respect for the dead. To us, the skeleton is the soul’s dwelling place, closely linked even after death. When the ashes of the dead disperse to all, their souls return to the sea. On the other hand, the Titans believe that skeletons of the dead are to be cherished by the living. Once someone passes away, their soul returns to Titan, which is the ore that we are currently standing on,” an old man suddenly interjected from the side with his long-winded explanation.

As one ages, the more one feels tempted to show off one’s knowledge in front of young people. There are often old people who want to give youngsters a taste of their ample experience.

Wang Zheng chuckled as he patronized the old man. On the other hand, the bodyguards around him had started fidgeting long ago. They kept shooting glances to Wang Zheng to no avail. So what if this old man was a big figure? He seemed to be as much as a show-off as any other old geezer.

It had been too long since Lan Jiang was last able to talk to his heart’s content. As the Lan family’s barely surviving elder, he held a frighteningly high position of authority in the family. Just the simple clearing of his throat would result in people obediently preparing tissues, spittoons, and mouthwash before he could say anything. Don’t they know that the older you are, the more you love lively situations? In his house, the places he walked were cold and cheerless. Other than his loud footsteps, other people around him walked around as silently as ghosts, without a sound to be heard.

Respect for elders is a pretty good tradition, but whenever he started to speak, his children and descendants would think that they had a better understanding of the family’s history. Behind his back, they whispered remarks such as “It’s so annoying to talk about the past!”, “I’ve grown tired of all these stories!”…

Fine! Since his family members did not want to listen, he decided to talk to outsiders. Before he could even leave the house, he was “escorted” back. Two big men clamped him from his left and right and chased him back into the house. Seemed more like a kidnapping than an escort!

It sure was lonely at the top.

Lan Jiang sized Wang Zheng up with great interest. “Are you the youngster that Ling Ling saved? I’m warning you, Ling Ling is kind-hearted by nature, so you better not have any ulterior motives regarding her. You barely have any meat on you, definitely gotta train more as a soldier.”

Wang Zheng did not know whether to laugh or cry, and just nodded. He did not dare utter a word in response. While he was not that old, his past relations with the Old Merchant had led him to have a favorable impression of interesting old people. Old and young, it was the same.

“I don’t want to assume anything about you, but from your countless questions on the Titans’ traditions, I’m guessing that this is your first time on the Titatitan Star.”

Lan Jiang remarked as though he was encountering a profound mystery, giving off his best impression of Sherlock Holmes in the process.

He had heard that his precious granddaughter had saved someone from the Milky Way Alliance, a young man with explosive vitality. He originally wanted to commend his granddaughter on her grace, but on second thought, he realised that his granddaughter was around the age where she would meet her first love. As her grandfather, how could he not personally come out and find out more!?

It was alright, though; this fella wasn’t handsome at all. Even from an objective point of view, this young man was at most just slightly good-looking and could never steal his granddaughter’s heart away.

“When are you going back to the Milky Way Alliance?”

Lan Jiang inquired with the tone of chasing a person away. The bodyguards’ interest was piqued, and although they stood at attention, they could not help but smile. They were awaiting Little Wang’s reply.

“I’m getting off work.” Wang Zheng beamed, as he turned around and started to return to the room the bodyguards had assigned to him. He was supposed to get off work an hour ago, and there was no overtime pay in this place.

“How dare you!”

Lan Jiang was infuriated, but at the same time genuinely excited. He did not really want to get rid of Wang Zheng. Was there anyone in the Lan family home that would dare to toy with him? Even if this was just to attract his attention, it was pretty fun.

“Why, are you frustrated by my long-windedness? This old man just wants to reason with you!” Lan Jiang grumbled.

Wang Zheng deeply regretted his decision to volunteer for overtime. Not getting any overtime pay was annoying enough, now he had to deal with this inconvenience as well.

Lan Ling came to visit at night. With a pleasant smile, she remarked, “Grandfather is actually a nice person, he’s just a little bored. If he has any requests, we usually try our best to fulfil them, so please try to understand.”

Wang Zheng agreed without any hesitation. After all, this was a request from Lan Ling. If he could not even help out with this small request, what kind of person was he?

The next day, Old Man Lan Jiang arrived bright and early in the morning. “Follow me, young one, I happen to lack an assistant.”

“Can I go back to the Milky Way Alliance right now?” Wang Zheng commented deliberately. Sometimes, when old people were bored, teasing them a little could make them happy.

“No can do, I haven’t even found out who you are exactly. Furthermore, you still haven’t paid up. Do you know how much your treatment cost? That was the girl’s personal money.” Lan Jiang’s head was shaking like a rattle-drum.

Lan Jiang unquestionably had the most understanding of the Titatitan Star’s affairs. The dwarves were the wise and the giants were the brave. The wise controlled knowledge, whereas the brave were natural-born warriors. Whatever weapon they wielded, they were able to exhibit their best abilities. This included human weapons as well.

The Titans had already adapted to human technology. Lan Jiang had specially designed close-range weapons and armor for the people of Titan Star. Over here, laser weapons and energy shields were ineffective. The warriors of the Titatitan Star grew up to five or six meters at adulthood, and they had enormous strength. Once they were fitted with custom-made equipment, their combat skills were astonishing.

Old Man Lan had attained his position not only because of his experience, but also because he had a natural gift for weapon design.

The laser weapons that humans preferred were useless on the Titatitan Star. Furthermore, the design of cold weapons was directed at the Titan people’s body conditions, and were basically all made by the old man. Everyone remarked that Lan Jiang wasn’t called “Jiang 1 ” for nothing, but Wang Zheng was suspicious that he had changed his own name. After all, Lan Da Chui didn’t have quite the same ring to it as Lan Jiang, and one would definitely fail to become a guru with that name.

While Guru Lan Jiang was researching, he never let Wang Zheng leave the house. Besides the tea and snacks to eat and the television to watch, how different was this from confinement?

Even worse… the television was not fun to watch!

In total, there were only two channels!

One of them was the Tita entertainment channel. They were showing reruns of Milky Way Alliance variety shows from a year back. The one currently showing was “Genius Da Zheng Gu”, where a group of self proclaimed geniuses tackled various challenges… the content left Wang Zheng cringing.

The other channel was the kid’s channel, which wasn’t worth watching at all. One could never guess that such an antiquated place still existed today.

Turning off the television, Wang Zheng started to drink the tea. While he did not know much about tea, he could tell that this tea was of high quality. It was especially fragrant, and simply exhaling after drinking the tea made one feel at ease.

Even though one would sincerely like to play down the significance of some matters, sometimes the impact of the aftermath could get so out of control that even asking questions would not reconcile the situation.

Thankfully, Wang Zheng was always able to keep himself entertained. In the corner of the room were a few pieces of scrap paper with several math problems written on it. This was it.

Wang Zheng pulled out a few pencils from the side. The old man seemed to like using these old-fashioned tools, and so did Wang Zheng. The joy of writing was something that people with messy handwriting could never understand, but Wang Zheng’s handwriting was rather neat.

Wang Zheng started writing faster and faster. The more he wrote, the more pleased he became. The question was rather difficult, and the knowledge Wang Zheng needed to tap on gradually increased…

Halfway through his writing, Wang Zheng furrowed his brow for he could not continue. The question was missing a key variable that could not be found on either of the two pieces of scrap paper.

Forget it, time to quit.

Wang Zheng nonchalantly tossed the papers on the table, and shifted his attention to the bookshelf on the side. The bookshelf could be described with a single word – spotless.